My travelogue of a journey through 1000 bars in 1 year, and more, much more.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

No Bingo, But...

It was my own fault. I spent so much time uploading and doctoring the pictures of our night at the Botanical Garden Party that I got to No Way Jose! too late to join the Mexican Bingo crowd. And I wasn't even that late.

No Way Jose! is a fairly new restaurant that is on a short, two block long, street right next to the river. In fact the street basically runs just between the two main bridges that cross over the island in the Cuale River. A nice big island too, with vendors, restaurants, art galleries, a museum that is never open. All kinds of stuff. But, as usual, I digress.

No Way Jose!

And, like I say, the place was packed with Mexican Bingo junkies. Kind of reminded me of that song by Warren Zevon, "Seminole Bingo." Not sure if there were any junk bond kings from Liechtenstein here because I didn't see any double-wide Tamiami Trail parked outside.

But The Place Was Packed

And They Looked Serious

Actually, I am kind of glad I didn't get a place at the tables because, really, does this guy calling the numbers, er, I mean pictures, look like someone you would trust?

Step Right Up, A Winner Every Time

Actually, that is my friend Gary who is very involved in a number of charitable events down here in Mexico and was a guest caller this evening. He also put together the evening's dinner get-together latter in the evening.

Not being able to play bingo kind of worked to my advantage. I had some time to kill before our dinner so the Mysterious Chinese Woman went to the outside deck upstairs for a drink and a bit of a nosh.

Me And My Margarita

The Mysterious Chinese Woman prefers to do her drinking standing at the bar.

Drinking With The Bar Boys

It was really nice up here, cloth tablecloths and everything. A lot of places just have those plastic ones so that if you spill your drink (not that I ever do) it runs into your lap. I prefer the more absorbant ones. Insert the obligatory Depends joke here.

Class All The Way

We decided to sample an appetizer and ordered the Snapper Carpaccio. Something a bit different and quite good.

Kind Of A Snapper Spread (No Off-Color Jokes, Please)

The place was so nice and the service so friendly that the Mysterious Chinese Woman and I decided we would have our Valentine's Day dinner here. Good thing we didn't wait to book our reservations because they were almost filled up already. But we got one of the two tables still available up on the deck.

We finished up our appetizer and drinks and then headed to Bistro Balsamar for our dinner.

Bistro Balsamar

This is an upstairs restaurant and I ate here once last year. You can't really see that it is upstairs from the picture I took, but this gives you a little bit more of a feel for it.

Kind Of A View

Gary puts together group outings a few times a month and they are a good way to meet people and have a fun time.

Gary's Groupies

Kind of suspicious that when I went to take their pictures everyone turned away. Well, they often say that Mexico is where you go when there is nowhere else to run.

The food here was interesting. I had some kind of a soup appetizer that was really spicy, and by spicy I mean hot. Hot enough for me to break a sweat eating it The Mysterious Chinese Woman had a shrimp curry dish that also had cilantro in it. Kind of an interesting fusion style.

A Shrimp Curry Fusion Dish

I had the porkchops and I wasn't really enthralled. It kind of looked like a nice thick one but was really two thin ones on top of each other. And when you have thin porkchops you can't really cook them anyway but, in my opinon, way too well-done. Que?Pasa, formerly Sweeny's, next-door has a much better and really thick porkchop. At least in my opinion.

But the desert, a homemade coffee ice-cream, was very good as was the coffee that they served. They roast their own beans. And the service was very good and the owner was friendly. All and all we had a very nice time.